I may be stuck at home, but, because my husband is considered an “essential worker,” he’s still out among the public six days a week. To keep up the morale of his coworkers and allow me a chance to stress bake with no consequence to my waistline, he asked if I would send in a couple of desserts each week. Of course, this was no problem since I decided to dust off my collection of cookbooks and finally start to read through them. This week, on “What Are You Reading, Wednesday?” I found a recipe for Rich Cheesecake Bars, which I adapted to Gooey Lemon Bars, in the Taste of Home Cake Mix Creations cookbook.
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Gooey Lemon Bars Recipe
These bars are a variation of the rich gooey butter cakes you can find in St. Louis. When I test tasted the bars, I felt like they needed a little something. Since I’m partial to the butter cakes at Gooey Louie’s, I found myself thinking of how they make them fresh daily and have a variety of flavors. Lemon is one of my favorites, so I changed the recipe to add a teaspoon of lemon extract.
Printable Recipe
- Crust:
- 1 box (15.25 ounces) yellow cake mix
- 1/2 cup butter softened
- 1 egg
- Filling:
- 1 package (8 ounces) cream cheese, softened
- 2 cups confections sugar
- 1 teaspoon lemon extract
- Additional confectioners sugar for sprinkling, optional
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
- In a large mixing bowl, add cake mix, butter, and egg. Mix until crumbly.
- Press mixture into a greased 9-inch by 9-inch baking pan,
- In another large bowl, add cream cheese, confectioner’s sugar, and lemon extract. Mix until blended.
- Spread over cake crumb mixture.
- Bake for 30-35 minutes or until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean.
- Sprinkle additional confectioner’s sugar on top, if desired.
- Allow to cool and cut into bars.
Cooking Tips:
*Make this recipe Gluten-Free by substituting a boxed gluten-free cake mix for the regular cake mix.
*Use butter, yellow, or white cake mix to give this dessert different flavor profiles.
*Substitute different flavors of extracts to give this a completely different flavor. Good choices are almond and vanilla.
Make it Chocolate-Mocha:
Substitute a box of Devil’s Food Cake for the yellow cake mix. Omit the lemon extract and add a teaspoon of coffee flavoring.
Make it Chocolate-Peppermint:
This is a great treat for the holidays. Substitute a box of Devil’s Food Cake for the yellow cake mix. Omit the lemon extract and add a teaspoon of peppermint extract. Add a few drops of red food coloring to the filling mixture, if desired.
About the Book:
Taste of Home Cake Mix Creations features 216 recipes that begin with a mix. All the recipes use common ingredients found in most grocery stores. The book is divided into nine chapters; Layer Cakes and Tortes, Crowd Pleasers, Party Cakes, Bundt Cakes, Angel Food Cakes, Cupcakes, Coffee Cakes, Cookies and Bars, and Desserts.
These recipes are designed for everyone from beginning cooks to more experienced cooks who would like to make treats in a jiffy. Every recipe includes a picture for reference. Baking tips, ingredient substitutions, and baking “secrets” are included in several of the recipes. This version was published in 2009 and is available in both hardback and paperback.
Want to see another cookbook I recommend? Check out this Rocky Road Brownies Recipe from Quick Fixes With Cake Mixes.
What are reading or cooking up this week? Want more recommendations for reading?
Check out these What Are You Reading, Wednesday? participants:
What are you reading? -Hobbies on A Budget
Lessons We Can Learn From Stephen King’s The Stand– Cheap is the New Classy
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Those bars look so good and perfect to take to work in the morning to have with my coffee, so easy to make too
This sounds like a delightful treat! Thanks for sharing your recipe. I’ll have to make these while we are home.
What a nice recipe to try. It looks delicious and tempting, I’d love to make these.
That looks so good! I love lemon flavor, so refreshing! Yum!
I haven’t had lemon bars in ages. This looks like a great recipe for my daughter to learn. The whole family will love these.
I stress bake too… But the way life has gone lately – there hasn’t even been time to bake. These sound so good!!!!
With more time on my hands these will be fun to make. We’ve been baking a bit more. Need to workout though to offset -(
I have a sweet tooth and those look good. Going to try your recipe soon. Thank you for sharing.
A delicious snack is exactly what I need right now! I will definitely make these lemon bars soon!
Lemon bars are one of my favorites little desserts. The flavor and gooey texture is amazing.
I’ve actually never made lemon bars before. Looking forward to giving this recipe a try. It looks really yummy.
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I know I’d love these! I am all about lemon treats. They look so delicious. I can’t wait to make them with my kids!
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